The adventure into parenthood

Hospital dash – The fantastic NHS

Bank holiday Friday. I wake up with the intention of painting the bedroom…. It wasn’t to be.

The wife is in some pain and hasn’t felt the baby move since she woke up. A quick call to her mom, a call to the midwife and we’re off to the hospital.

With 15 minutes of arriving we are hooked up to a monitor which is checking the baby’s heart beat, instantly relieving a large amount of worry when we hear it beating away. She was also given a button to click every time the baby moved. It just so happened that as soon we were on the monitor the baby woke up and started doing the waltz. We both felt a little silly for the panic.

The discomfort was explained as the placenta pushing on cartalidge or ligaments as it moves and expands. The reason for such panic was in part to the wife having no aches or pains associated with the pregnancy up until this point and it doesn’t take long for your brain to imagine the worst.

We had a full scan after half an hour of being on the monitor and saw that our baby had folded herself up like a deck chair. she had gotten herself into a very strange position and was probably adding to the discomfort…. Silly baby!

I also want to sing the praises of the NHS. The professionalism and understanding attitudes of the nurses was exemplary, as was the speed and manner in which we were seen. We are truly lucky to have such a fantastic institution available to us in this country and I’m sure, with the trials of being a parent, I’ll come to appreciate it even more.

It’s now only two and a half months left until our due date. I can hardly wait!